'Genre' Fiction

[jenks]

OK I'm starting this cos it has been raised a few times elsewhere on the Lit Forum.
.
Obviously St. J. G. Ballard of this parish is the sine qua non of this field but can i add a few detective writers-

Ian Rankin and his Rebus series
George P Pelecanos
Kinky Friedman
James Ellroy
David Peace

to get the ball rolling

 

[Slothrop]

OK I'm starting this cos it has been raised a few times elsewhere on the Lit Forum.
.
Obviously St. J. G. Ballard of this parish is the sine qua non of this field but can i add a few detective writers-

Ian Rankin and his Rebus series
George P Pelecanos
Kinky Friedman
James Ellroy
David Peace

to get the ball rolling

How about the fabulously posh Dorothy L Sayers.

John Le Carre probably deserves a mention as well.

What about fantasy? Obviously there's quite a lot of good interesting non-predictable SF published alongside all the usual cheap knock-offs, but I've never heard of anything much from modern non-childrens' fantasy that wasn't some sort of a LotR pastiche. Oh, except Neil Gaiman.

 

[John Doe]

Elmore Leonard
James Lee Burke

- two brilliant (crime) writers. If you rate/like Pelecanos (which I do) then you'll like James Lee Burke (and Leonard too, but everyone knows about him).

Obviously William Gibson - especially Pattern Recognition.

 

[IdleRich]

How about Iain (M) Banks for sci-fi?

 

[Dorothea]

Raymond Chandler wrote thrillers which I don't think anyone else has ever surpassed as pure examples of the genre.

 

[bassnation]

How about the fabulously posh Dorothy L Sayers.

John Le Carre probably deserves a mention as well.

What about fantasy? Obviously there's quite a lot of good interesting non-predictable SF published alongside all the usual cheap knock-offs, but I've never heard of anything much from modern non-childrens' fantasy that wasn't some sort of a LotR pastiche. Oh, except Neil Gaiman.

ursula le guin (the earthsea novels) is excellent for fantasy - a different take on the whole wizardry thing where use of power disrupts the "balance" with every action having its own karmic cost. in le guin's books, characters actually strive to avoid the use of power.

the later books weren't too my taste - too many key characters retiring and having quiet home lives. very laudable but i'm not really interested in reading about that, at least in a fantasy novel anyway.

the third novel involves a battle against a wizard who has abused his power to raise the dead and grant himself imortality, thus tipping the balance and wreaking all kinds of havoc - this is the best of the series in my opinion.

not sure if you'd class these as childrens novels though.

 

[Slothrop]

ursula le guin (the earthsea novels) is excellent for fantasy - a different take on the whole wizardry thing where use of power disrupts the "balance" with every action having its own karmic cost. in le guin's books, characters actually strive to avoid the use of power.

the later books weren't too my taste - too many key characters retiring and having quiet home lives. very laudable but i'm not really interested in reading about that, at least in a fantasy novel anyway.

the third novel involves a battle against a wizard who has abused his power to raise the dead and grant himself imortality, thus tipping the balance and wreaking all kinds of havoc - this is the best of the series in my opinion.

not sure if you'd class these as childrens novels though.

I'd forgotten about her - good point.

I don't really know if they're childrens' novels or not - iirc, they weren't particularly adult (in terms of themes or content) and just relied on good storytelling and atmosphere. OTOH I don't think being an 'adult' novel automatically requires you to have three graphic sex scenes and one character with heavy psychological issues or anything, so it's not really clear. I don't suppose it matters much, to be honest.

 

[carlos]

Raymond Chandler wrote thrillers which I don't think anyone else has ever surpassed as pure examples of the genre.

i started this thread on "Crime Fiction" some time ago

i love Chandler but i think i might prefer Hammett- both are excellent though. Hammett's "The Glass Key" might be his best

 

[petergunn]

i started this thread on "Crime Fiction" some time ago

i love Chandler but i think i might prefer Hammett- both are excellent though. Hammett's "The Glass Key" might be his best

i've always been a sucker for jim thompson myself...